Challenge

In this omnichannel pharma example, a leading healthcare company was keen to implement a more customer-centric omnichannel approach — and had invested heavily in content to enable local markets to better tailor their HCP outreach to individual customer needs.

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that affiliates were not using this content and, therefore, the omnichannel strategies that it was intended to enable were not being implemented locally.

Believing the issue to be solely a content problem, the company asked Anthill to review their marketing materials and recommend improvements to enable its use in omnichannel.

While it was clear that there were issues with the materials, Anthill recommended a broader ‘omnichannel audit’ because content is just one factor among many that might be causing problems.

Consequently, Anthill conducted interviews and surveys with global and local company stakeholders. The audit investigated five success factors for omnichannel in pharma:

1. Omnichannel strategy
2. Brand essence
3. Technology stack
4. Content planning
5. Omnichannel execution

Solution

The audit’s in-depth interviews and surveys identified fundamental barriers to effective omnichannel implementation — which went beyond specific issues with the content. These problems included:

• Absence of a clear omnichannel strategy
• A disconnected and fragmented marketing technology (MarTech) stack
• An inefficient content supply chain
• Brand planning issues
• Core assets that were not omnichannel ready
• Insufficient omnichannel skills and capabilities

While this analysis presented significant issues, the company’s global marketing team rose to the challenge. Recognising that fundamental changes were needed, they used the findings to galvanise a process that would rebuild the whole marketing organisation.

Consequently, a comprehensive omnichannel strategy with three core focus areas was devised:

1. Customer engagement
2. Content excellence
3. Omnichannel boosters

Customer engagement model

Acknowledging that HCP engagement planning must be clearer and more customer-focused, an entirely new toolkit was created. Processes, tools, roles and responsibilities were all clarified and simplified.

The result was an integrated approach that worked across functions and markets, providing a common platform and a consistent way to roll out customer journeys and campaigns.

The revised planning model was backed by training. The omnichannel audit had identified an omnichannel skill deficit. People lacked essential competencies and were unsure how to enact omnichannel strategies. That was rectified with an extensive training programme targeted to different functions.

A major challenge was updating the marketing channels. The company recognised that it was overly focused on F2F engagement, yet eDetailing presentations were hard to use. Likewise, remote detailing content provided a poor customer experience. Additionally, digital channels that increase reach and contact frequency, such as approved email and automated HCP engagement, were not being used.

To enable omnichannel customer journey experiences, both the available channels and the content were expanded and improved — all enabled by a more efficient content supply chain.

Content excellence programme

To support enhanced customer engagement, a content excellence programme was implemented.

The omnichannel audit found a number of technology issues, with outdated and slow solutions throughout the content supply chain. Process problems — such as overly complex MLR approvals and a lack of local market capacity to deal with brand content coming from HQ — were also identified.

Together with stakeholders in MLR, review processes were optimised to speed content approvals. A modular approach to content production aided this significantly.

Modular content is reusable "blocks" that can be used to quickly build tactics across channels, making it perfect for content-hungry omnichannel strategies. Crucially, each module is fully referenced. As a result, MLR can focus their attention where it is needed and avoid unnecessary duplication of work.

In addition, brand design systems were introduced. These provided reusable components — image libraries, colours and fonts — with clearly defined standards for use. This design clarity resulted in faster production and lower costs while also improving brand consistency.

Omnichannel boosters

The initiatives to improve customer engagement and the supply chain were augmented with a series of 'omnichannel boosters'.

An automated detailing channel, built on Anthill’s Amplify solution, enhanced engagement potential. Always accessible by HCPs, the channel provided an eDetailing-like experience with embedded chatbots that guide people through the content. Beyond increasing reach, it also offered an additional touchpoint to enliven omnichannel customer journeys.

Content excellence was further enhanced with a pharma AI solution that transformed asset search, content generation and translation. Appropriate for regulated pharma marketing, this solution avoided the danger of AI ‘hallucination’ by assembling pre-approved modular content blocks into tactics.

Finally, a content authoring tool, Anthill’s Activator, was introduced. That brought together the design systems and modular content into one easy-to-use solution. Deeply integrated with Veeva Vault, Activator allowed local markets to increase content volume and enact more customer-centric omnichannel strategies locally.

Results

This omnichannel pharma example shows how an initial request to review a company's marketing content expanded into a transformation of the organisation’s entire omnichannel capabilities.

A thorough omnichannel audit identified the barriers to success and provided a rationale for the senior marketing team to enact change. Working closely with Anthill, the company underwent a major change process, structured in three self-reinforcing areas.

Within customer engagement, a new brand planning model provided a common platform for all omnichannel initiatives. Refreshed solutions then unlocked the potential of existing channels, such as eDetailing and approved email, enabling the company to deliver more consistent and better-connected customer experiences that match today’s HCP expectations.

Internal training programmes then elevated staff capabilities, providing people with the skills to act on the company’s omnichannel opportunities with confidence.

The second core area, content excellence, enabled a more efficient supply chain, resulting in the faster production of assets and tactics. With the introduction of modular content, design systems and new review processes, content was made easier to produce and — crucially — for MLR to approve.

Effectively removing friction from the whole process, the company could meet the higher content volumes required by omnichannel. These improvements, coupled with a clarified HCP engagement model, made content more actionable for local markets.

Finally, a series of 'omnichannel boosters' enhanced both the organisation’s content supply chain and engagement capabilities.

An authoring solution brought together the different content excellence initiatives in one system. AI was introduced safely to boost content production further. And an automated HCP engagement solution now enriches the company’s digital ecosystem — enabling new opportunities for HCP engagement.